Contributor.

Erik MandellGlobal Envision - Mercy Corps.

Erik Mandell is an intern for Global Envision, a Mercy Corps.-supported blog and news aggregation website that shares information and resources about globalization and market solutions to poverty. Erik is a current graduate student at Portland State University. He graduated from Middlebury College in Vermont and has traveled extensively to numerous countries and six of the seven continents.

Posts by Erik Mandell

Lors Thmey, which means "new growth" in Khmer, teaches local entrepreneurs to become farm business advisors (FBAs). That means that in addition to selling products to farmers, they’re trained to be consultants, too. As a result, farmers produce better crops and make more money, and the FBAs expand their businesses and boost their incomes, too.

Money is whizzing through the airwaves and cell towers of Zimbabwe, as a mobile cash transfer system is on track to become the country’s biggest bank. EcoCash, a mobile money transfer service operated by telecommunications company EcoNet Wireless Zimbabwe, has reached a million subscribers in under six months since its launch.

Two recent articles, "The Itty-Bitty Multinational" in the Atlantic by Elizabeth Littlefield, the president and CEO of the Overseas Private Investment Corp.; and by Coca-Cola Chairman and Chief Executive Muhtar Kent in BBC News, examine new ways of thinking about how home-grown businesses, entrepreneurs, and multinationals can both succeed at business and best serve consumer demands.